Com. v. Pickron

• Decision Date: 02 December 1993
• Citation: 535 Pa. 241,634 A.2d 1093
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Robin PICKRON, Appellant. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Robert EDWARDS, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 1093

634 A.2d 1093

535 Pa. 241

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Robin PICKRON, Appellant.

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee, v. Robert EDWARDS, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted April 8, 1992.

Decided Dec. 2, 1993.

[535 Pa. 242] John W. Packel, Chief, Appeals Div., Owen W. Larabee, Asst. Defender, for Robin Pickron.

Charles L. Mitchell, Philadelphia, for Robert Edwards.

Ronald Eisenberg, Deputy Dist. Atty., Catherine Marshall, Chief, Appeals Div. and Kathy L. Echternach, Philadelphia, for the Com.

Before NIX, C.J., FLAHERTY, ZAPPALA, PAPADAKOS, CAPPY, and MONTEMURO, JJ.

OPINION

NIX, Chief Justice.

Today we review a Superior Court Order reversing the Order of the Court of Common Pleas which suppressed certain items of evidence seized from Appellants' home. The issue is whether the warrantless search by the parole officers violated Appellants' fourth amendment rights. We hold today that the parole officers did violate their rights and we reverse the Order of the Superior Court.

The credible evidence at the Motion to Suppress established that on March 6, 1989, Pennsylvania State Parole Officers David Guglielmi and James Newton went to the defendant Robin Pickron's apartment armed with a warrant to arrest her for failure to report to the State Board of Parole. Upon their arrival at 6:15 a.m., the agents advised her mother that they intended to search the residence for her daughter. The mother admitted the officers for that limited purpose.

Upon their admission to the apartment, the agents immediately noted that defendant Pickron was "living beyond her means." The agents then began a general search for Pickron in areas large enough to conceal a person. Parole agent Newton searched a small office. He opened a closet door and, after observing that no one was there, he saw in plain view a bottle of quinine, a cutting agent for heroin. Newton, believing that there were narcotics to be found, then instituted a more thorough search. From a box on the windowsill he seized a coffee grinder containing a white powdery residue. From the desk, he recovered a teacup containing a small package of white powder, a welfare card depicting defendant Edwards, an insurance card and a business card belonging to Edwards. He also found in and under the desk a roll of plastic tape, a silver spoon, glassine packets, bags containing vials and plastic bags. Agent Newton informed agent Guglielmi of his discoveries; agent Guglielmi then expanded the scope of his search.

Guglielmi searched all of the cabinets and drawers in defendant Pickron's bedroom, seizing from the dresser drawer two packets containing a white substance, nine packets containing a green weed, a plastic bottle of inositol, and a face filter mask. From inside the dresser, the agent also seized Pennsylvania State Parole Agent James Commons' business card, and a ziplock bag containing empty packets. Agent Guglielmi returned to the kitchen and recovered a plastic bag containing white powder from the medicine cabinet.

At 7:15 a.m., when defendant Pickron entered the residence, she was arrested and a beeper was confiscated from her person. The agents waited until 9:15 a.m. for defendant Edwards to arrive and, when he did not, they left.

At this time, they transported Pickron to the local police station and then to the Narcotics Division for processing on the present charges. They took the evidence to the Police Administration Building. No technical parole violations were ever instituted based on the contraband seized.

The defendants filed a Motion to Suppress the drugs, the drug paraphernalia and the identification evidence. The trial court suppressed the evidence based upon Commonwealth v. Brown, 240 Pa.Super. 190, 361 A.2d 846 (1976). The court held that the parole officers had "switched hats" by ceasing to act as administrators of the parole system, and began acting as police officers gathering evidence to support new criminal charges. The court rejected the Commonwealth's contention that Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868, 107 S.Ct. 3164, 97 L.Ed.2d 709 (1987), allowed the parole officers to conduct the search.

The Commonwealth appealed to the Superior Court, which reversed the Order of the trial court suppressing the evidence. 400 Pa.Super. 197, 583 A.2d 445 (1990). The Superior Court distinguished Commonwealth v. Brown and held that the parole officers had not switched hats; instead

[t]hey found quinine, a cutting agent for heroin, in a closet of the apartment occupied by the defaulting parolee. Therefore, they expanded their search to determine whether there was evidence that the parolee was abusing drugs. It was clearly within their role as supervisors of Pickron's parole to ascertain whether the parolee, who had not been reporting to her supervisor, had been engaged in illegal drug activities. The fact that the parole officers elected to make this additional determination did not cause them to switch roles from parole supervisors to police officers engaged in investigating crime.

The search of the apartment was made by parole officers without assistance or intervention by police. The record does not show police involvement of any kind in the events which caused the parole officers to arrive at, enter and search the parolee's apartment. The fact that the parole officers, having found controlled substances in the apartment, elected to proceed first by criminal prosecution rather than by immediate parole violation proceedings does not imply that they were acting in a police capacity when they searched the parolee's apartment. By proceeding criminally in the first instance, they may well have envisioned an evidentially easier and more narrowly focused parole violation hearing.

Finally, it cannot be said that the parole officers changed hats and became stalking horses for the police when, having found contraband, they retained evidence which identified other occupants of the apartment who may have had access to the contraband. This fact, without more, did not render illegal the search for contraband after the finding of a bottle of quinine had suggested the likelihood that the parolee was keeping a controlled substance in the apartment.

Id. at 206-07, 583 A.2d at 450.

We granted allocatur to examine the fourth amendment rights of a parolee. Commonwealth v. Edwards, 527 Pa. 641, 593 A.2d 415 (1991); Commonwealth v. Pickron, 527 Pa. 643, 593 A.2d 417 (1991). Subsequently, on September 1, 1992, we ordered the parties to brief the issue of whether the Superior Court improperly disregarded the credibility findings of the Suppression Court.

Appellants argue that the Superior Court improperly disregarded the Suppression Court's factual findings that the parole officers acted like police officers. The Commonwealth argues first that the Superior Court properly reviewed the facts; conversely, the Commonwealth argues that the purpose of the agents is unimportant because the parole officers have the right to conduct a search for evidence of parole violations, including criminal activities which violate parole.

For the reasons that follow, we reverse the Superior Court and reinstate the Order of the Court of Common Pleas suppressing the drugs, the paraphernalia and the identification evidence.

In cases where we review the findings of fact made by a trial court to suppress evidence, we follow a clearly defined standard of review. Where the Commonwealth appeals the findings of a Suppression Court we consider only the evidence of the defendant's witnesses and the evidence of the prosecution that, when read in the context of the entire record, remains uncontradicted. We are bound by the lower court's findings of fact if they are supported in the record, but we must examine any legal conclusions drawn from those facts. Commonwealth v. Lagana, 517 Pa. 371, 375, 537 A.2d 1351, 1353-54 (1988). See also Commonwealth v. Robinson, 518 Pa. 156, 159, 541 A.2d 1387, 1388-89 (1988). In this case, the Suppression Court found that the parole officers had subjectively changed the purpose of their search from searching for evidence of parole violations to searching for evidence of criminal violations.

Based upon the testimony of the parole officers, the Suppression Court found that the parole officers had acted as police officers. ¹ Our review of the record supports that finding. Thus, our review is now limited to whether the trial court made an error of law in suppressing the evidence.

Appellants are here before us claiming that the fourth amendment prohibits the type of activity in which the parole officers engaged. The claims are not rooted in our state constitution. ² Our examination is based solely on the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution.

The fourth amendment protects parolees with some limitations. The Supreme Court of the United States has recognized that parolees do have limited fourth and fifth amendment rights in parole revocation hearings; similarly, the Court has held that they have limited constitutional rights with regard to criminal proceedings.

The closest case on point to this one is Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868, 107 S.Ct. 3164, 97 L.Ed.2d 709 (1987), in which the United States Supreme Court addressed the fourth amendment rights of a probationer whose house was searched pursuant to a state regulation which authorized probation officers to search his house based upon reasonable suspicion that the residence contained contraband. The State Department of Health and Social Services in Wisconsin promulgated regulations, pursuant to a statute that permitted a probation officer to search a probationer's home without a warrant, with his supervisor's permission and if there were reasonable grounds to believe that contraband was present. Upon information from a police tip, a probation officer searched Griffin's apartment and found a handgun, in violation of probationer's parole. Griffin was convicted of the...